Sunday, October 28, 2018

Coping Systems

Religions are perhaps the original coping mechanism for dealing with the vicissitudes of life. I hold this statement to be self evident once we make this realization, just like many religions claim. Looking back provides a different perspective from going through the problem.

We see this in the Buddhist four noble truths; life (is) contains suffering, the cause is internal delusions, desires, aversions, expectations, there is a solution in changing our thinking to the right thinking and following the eight step path plan for a good life.

We see this also in the Stoic system, but not as obviously in the impermanence of life and conditions, in the external causes are always external, and we are effected by only our reaction to the external; it is not the event, but our thinking about the event; some things are up to us and some are not (lists), and similar statements. The "view from far above" concept, once we learn it and use it, makes this clear.

When we get old and start to reflect on life, it is obvious that life is about getting through life, coping, as best we can, and anyway we can in the tight parts. Just getting through is all we can do sometimes. It is about coping with the issues, internally or externally, often the unknown with no practical choice and/or no clear choice. Those of us who get off the path that religion provided need to find a new path, a new coping system, to help us through, to guide us through.

For some of us it was the escape of alcohol, or other drug... until that was doing damage, and then we looked for others. AA, NA, and along came SMART. Understanding the problem provides a better way, a more obvious way. Addressing the vicissitude, or our reaction to the vicissitude provides a real solution in order to not need the coping mechanism. That is what appears to be the real solution.

I think that it is imperative anyone studying the problem should understand that we can trade coping mechanism, or deal with the real problem that caused us to need the coping system in the first place. And if we trade coping systems, we may need to upgrade far above AA, SMART, to understanding the real causes, and finally to deal with reality.

Sunday, October 14, 2018

What is your evidence?

What is your evidence? Can you direct me to your evidence? If you are unable, then your story is just story.

So MMP does not cause Autism? Where is your evidence?

Actually there is a higher frequency of autism on early vaccinated children than among the later vaccinated... no wait.... between early vaccinated British verse vaccinated East European... the co-factors were not corrected for. To really disprove one would need to look at infrequence of occurrence between early vaccinated and late vaccinated children, but that is not about to happen... because it would be unethically to risk children getting measles, but not exposing them to a higher risk of autism is OK because the authorities having jurisdiction say that MMP does not cause autism.

When we look at frequency of autism, we see and year over year increase, and it is often not identified/diagnosed until teen years. And it is high in industrial cultures, and non-existent/diagnosed in undeveloped.  And then the disordered kids are all called autistic/UDHD/ADD/dyslexic or something. Autism is difficult to diagnose until school age, perhaps 10 or so, unless you are looking to hang a label on a child.

So both sides are in a battle of words, there is no evidence either way; the study's that cast doubt are all discredited by the other side, the drug companies. Oh well, it is not my issue.

Wakefield was poor at dealing with children with gut pain: even trying to understand the problem got him into ethics problem/mine field, and it blew up in his face. What he found is that people with gut problem frequently have other issues.... autism and crones/IBS are common. Why? Who knows? These both seem it be development issues. But the evidence of all this in summarized in various autism/dyslexia studies.  We need to recall that the opinion of an expert is the lowest form of evidence by the Frye Standard.

But the question, what is you evidence separates the critical thinkers from the marketing types. Oh well. As one old fellow told me about business plans, "as long as it looks good, no one will ever read it." I it is all just marketing story.  

Sunday, October 7, 2018

Overeating is a coping method

We humans are a puny bunch, physically and mentally. We cannot handle what the world has to throw at us without coping methods. That is just a downside of our big brains, especially when life does not go as it might. Fate or Fortune always is there; we get pushed off our even keel so easily by nature. We developed coping strategies, delusions, or would they be illusions some of the time. We use our inability to see that we are wrong when we are focused on a single wrong idea. Religion. Religion is a coping method for handling situations we do not like. Suffering exists and is part of life. It is caused by our delusions, aversions, attachments and similar concepts. Oh well, there is a solution and that solution is to follow a reasonable plan for life including a view of ethics, reality and the world around us. Sound familiar?

So my claim now is that "religions are the original coping methods" of not being able to deal with nature and the goings on that our ancestors found. Later a few turned to alcohol, and then in 1935 AA came along, as a replacement/return to religious thinking. Overeating is often a coping method, but for many OA is not successful, as we now realize that religions are just coping methods, and there are no gods. All is just a coping method for a life which we are learning to live all our lives.     

How much damage is our attitude that "freedom of religion is an indigenous right" actually doing?

We allow freedom of religion, and this is essentially allowing people to believe what ever nonsense they choose. Is it freedom or neglect? What damage is being done to young minds, and of the adult mind believing in fiction, being controlled/oppressed by organizations and old books?

Consider Islam. The damage is real. Consider Catholics. The damage is real, but less than Islam.

Christians are good at building community. That is their primary good. They hold back other development, try to stop science, and foster the spread of disease and overpopulation through resistance to birth control and condoms. Is that beneficial to society?

But all religions are just coping methods, as are alcohol and mind altering drugs. So ethics, with its issues of relativism, adaption, uncertainty, delusions, principals, concepts, and the like is a partial solution, perhaps.

We live on a planet, and if the Co2 level is an indication, it can support about 3.5b and our current carbon demand level. We are 7.7b now. This is the ethical life boat problem. It is doubtful if we can engineer our way out of this. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.

This is thanksgiving weekend in Canada. Lets all just give thanks, eat and not think or speak of this real problem... that is coming to a head in the next 50 years or so.